Monday, May 30, 2011

He died in Viterbo, Italy, on May 26, 2011. Peter Boom was born on March 31, 1936, in Bloemendaal, Netherlands and was an actor, singer, voice actor, lyricist and writer, philosopher.

Death was most likely caused by a heart attack and occurred at his home in Bagnaia, a suburb of Viterbo, where he lived for many years. The last artistic effort by Peter Boom was his participation in "Habemus Papam" by Nanni Moretti. During his career he starred in the theater with Mario Carotenuto, Giancarlo Sbragia, Nino Manfredi, Mario Missiroli. Boom worked with Sophia Loren, Nino Manfredi, Mel Ferrer, Burt Lancaster, Joseph Cotten, Erland Josephson and sang and wrote songs for Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Marcello Giombini and others. Peter had been a resident in Italy since 1956. Boom also worked for RAI and the Rome Opera. In recent years, was the creator of the so-called theory of pansexuality, presented in various congresses of sexology. Boom a homosexual used his status as a spokesman for gay rights. Boom was one of the main singers used for singing the main themes during the Spaghetti western genre in the 1960s and 1970s. He sang such songs as "Necklace of Pearls" for Blood at Sundown (1966) with Anthony Steffen and Johnny Garko, "Song of the Cowboy" for "A Man Called Amen" (1968), "Kidnappping" for the film of the same title (1969), "Julie" for "4 Gunmen of the Holy Trinity" (1970) and "Ride Alone" for "Sartana Kills Them All" (1971). He also recorded an English language version of "Run, Man, Run" and was featured on the soundtrack for "Sabata which was later cut.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Lillian was born on May 13, 1922 in Chicago, and raised in what she liked to call "a small Hungarian village" in Brooklyn. Her first language was Yiddish, but she also spoke Hungarian, Romanian and English.

Throughout her schooling, she always bested the teachers, knowing all the answers but "acting" like she wasn't paying attention so they would call on her. She spent much of her childhood playing with her sisters and 1st cousins. If they ever played a game, she was always the "judge" - as she could be counted to give a fair and unbiased ruling. She would visit the movies each weekend, and return to perform the film for her family... she always knew all the lines, but her improv made the experience better than the real thing.

In college, her pre-med aspirations turned to acting after she auditioned for and got the part of St. Joan. She also met her husband, moved to New York and worked in a factory during WWII. She had 2 children, Brian and Rima.

After her divorce in 1952, she moved back to Los Angeles and returned to her passions of acting and raising her children. She worked in film, commercial and theatre roles, and loved every moment. She always said, "my work is in the audition, not the job."

She is survived by her daughter, Rima Sappington, her sisters, Evelyn Akerman and Sylvia Juhn, and her grandchildren, Tanguy de Courson and Celine de Courson.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Janet Brown, who died on May 27 aged 87, was an actress best known for her impersonations of Margaret Thatcher on radio and television in the 1970s and 1980s.

She managed to perfect not only the Prime Minister’s manner of speaking — itself very distinctive — but also her mannerisms and style of dress.

Perhaps her finest performance was when she was in New York to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In the VIP lounge at Kennedy Airport she convinced the acid-tongued American comedienne Joan Rivers that she was indeed Mrs Thatcher. Rivers became obsequiousness itself, and apologised to "the Prime Minister" for berating the British Royal family. When told of the deception, she asked Janet Brown: "If you’re not Margaret Thatcher, for God’s sake who are you?"

Janet Brown admired the Prime Minister as a politician and as a woman, and the admiration was mutual. The two women struck up a friendship and occasionally met at No 10 Downing Street. When she was Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher also invited her "alter ego" to stay for the weekend at Chequers. Janet Brown was preparing to go to sleep in her bedroom when there was a knock on the door. It was Mrs Thatcher — concerned that her friend’s quarters were on the chilly side — bearing a hot-water bottle. On one of the occasions when Mrs Thatcher was reelected to government, she wrote to Janet Brown: "I half expected to find you at No 10 before me!"

Janet Brown was first asked to try her famous impersonation by Eamonn Andrews for Thames Television’s Today Show shortly after Margaret Thatcher had been elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. After Mrs Thatcher was elected to government four years later, demands for Janet Brown’s impersonation snowballed.

Janet McLuckie Brown was born on December 14 1923 at Rutherglen, near Glasgow, the daughter of a shipyard worker, and was educated at Rutherglen Academy. She left school early and worked briefly in a local branch of the Co-Op before leaving Glasgow, with the blessing of her father, to tour in a show with Hughie Green.

During the war she served with the ATS, joining a Stars in Battledress entertainment ensemble which gave shows for troops serving in Europe. Among those she worked with were Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and Harry Secombe.

She then sought to make a career in London working in radio, and in 1946 received an offer to join a summer revue show at Scarborough. It was there that she met her future husband, the actor Peter Butterworth, best known for his roles in the Carry On films. They married in 1947, and worked together on a number of occasions, including on children’s television.

She continued to be in demand on radio — she later appeared on The Goon Show — and she also appeared on stage in Mr Gillie, with Alastair Sim. She later recalled: "He taught me to always 'feel’ myself into a character from the inside."

On television, Janet Brown appeared in Rainbow Room, Where Shall We Go? and Friends and Neighbours before the Seventies’ taste for impressions led her to concentrate on the showbusiness niche that would make her famous.

On shows such as Who Do You Do (in which she appeared with Freddie Starr) and Mike Yarwood in Persons she gave impressions of the Coronation Street character Hilda Ogden, the entertainer "Two-Ton" Tessie O’Shea, Noele Gordon and Pam Ayres among others.

In 1981 she was given her own show, Janet and Co, making an impact with her impersonations of Mrs Thatcher and the celebrated dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse. She also played Margaret Thatcher in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981) and on Roy Hudd’s The News Huddlines on Radio 2.

She continued to work until late in life, and had recently appeared in shows such as Midsomer Murders (2004), Casualty (2005) and Hotel Babylon (2009) — her final stage role was as Old Lady Squeamish in The Country Wife at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2007.

Nothing gave Janet Brown more pleasure at the end of her life than watching sport on television, particularly snooker and tennis — she was always keen to follow the progress of her fellow Scot Andy Murray.

In 1987 she published an autobiography, Prime Mimicker.

Janet Brown died at a nursing home in Hove, East Sussex. Her husband Peter Butterworth died in 1979, aged 59, and she is survived by their son; a daughter predeceased her.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Phyllis Avery, who played the wife of Ray Milland in 75 episodes of the 1953-55 CBS comedy Meet Mr. McNulty, died May 19 of heart failure at her home in Los Angeles. She was 88.

In McNutley (later called The Ray Milland Show), Milland played a professor at a college for girls, with Avery as his wife, Peggy.

During her 50-year career, the petite blonde also co-starred in the 1960-62 CBS soap opera The Clear Horizon and on such shows as Peter Gunn, Have Gun -- Will Travel, The Rifleman, The Millionaire, Rawhide and Perry Mason.

In the mid-'60s, Avery went on to a career selling real estate in West Los Angeles but continued on TV with stints on All in the Family, Maude, Charlie's Angels and Baretta. In the 1990s, she appeared on the series Coach and in the 1993 film Made in America.

Born in New York to screenwriter Stephen Morehouse Avery (1948's Every Girl Should Be Married, starring Cary Grant) and Evelyn Martine, Avery made her Broadway debut in the 1937 production of Orchids Preferred. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she played one of the featured ingenues in the 1940 stage hit Charley's Aunt with Jose Ferrer.

In the morale-boosting World War II-era production of Winged Victory, Avery appeared opposite actor Don Taylor (the husband of Elizabeth Taylor in the two Father of the Bride movies), to whom she was married a year later. They divorced in 1955.

Avery made her movie debut in Queen for a Day (1951) and also appeared in the films Ruby Gentry (1952) and The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956).

In 1978 he won an AFI award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his part as Len Maguire in the movie Newsfront, which won eight AFIs that year, including Best Film.

Hunter, born in Ballarat, Victoria, started his career in television in the 1960s and worked on many Australian shows including Homicide, Prisoner, Matlock Police, SeaChange and Police Rescue.

Mr Morrissey said a memorial service would be held at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne on Thursday at 2pm.

"If you are not able to attend, we invite you, whether you are in your favourite pub, a theatre, at home, in country towns, on the land or with friends anywhere throughout Australia, that at 6pm on Thursday the 26th you raise your glass as a salute and a final farewell to a great man," he said.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Wrestling legend ‘Mach Man’ Randy Savage died Friday morning after a car accident in Tampa, Fla., TMZ.com reports. Savage's brother, Lanny Poffo, told the site that Savage suffered a heart attack behind the wheel and lost control of his vehicle. He was 58 years old.

Born Randall Mario Poffo, Savage had a phenomenal wrestling career that included 20 professional wrestling championships and seven world championships. He wrestled for World Championship Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, but his legacy in the sport is defined by his work in World Wrestling Federation between 1985 and 1994.

A renaissance man of sorts, Savage's career extended outside of the ring. He appeared on TV shows and movies like "Spider~Man", and lent his voice to animated work like 2008's "Bolt". He released a rap album in 2003 titled Be a Man. Perhaps his most famous work outside the wrestling was a string of commercials for Slim Jim, which featured the catchphrase, "Snap into a Slim Jim, oooooh yeah!"

On May 10, 2010, Savage married his longtime girlfriend Lynn Payne. He had no children.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

HOLLYWOOD—On Monday, May 16 entertainment icon and famous TV actress Barbara Stuart, who is best known as Bunny in "Gomer Pyle" died at her St. George Utah home. Stuart is best known for her role on "Gomer Pyle," however, she was one of the most prolific and beloved actresses in Hollywood history. Friends and fans grieve for the loss of such a genuine star. She was 76 years old.

Stuart was a classically trained thespian. She attended acting school at the famed Schuster-Martin School of Drama in Cincinnati, Ohio. The school was founded by the aunt of 20th Century Fox leading man Tyrone Power. She later studied under famed acting coaches Stella Adler and Uta Hagen in New York City. To pay the bills between acting roles, Barbara began to model and was a huge success at is, as she would become in her acting career.

Stuart’s first acting job came with the national tour of "Lunatics and Lovers." She often spoke of the grueling work on stage, but enjoyed working with Zero Mostel in the production. Immediately after this stage role, Barbara was noticed by TV casting directors and her career took off.

She loved working with Larry Storch in "The Queen and I," she also was one of Aaron Spelling’s first choices in his hit series "The Love Boat." However, it was Sgt. Carter’s girlfriend Miss Bunny that made Barbara a big television star. She took the character to "The Andy Griffith Show" and was identified for that role for the rest of her career. She also enjoyed working with stage and Eastwood films legend Eli Wallach.

Another famous role for Stuart was opposite Academy Award® winning actor Tom Hanks. She played is mother-in-law in "Bachelor Party." The beautiful star lived in her Toluca Lake home for over 35 years before recently becoming too ill to live alone. She then relocated to Utah.

Barbara was once married to actor, writer and artist Dick Gautier. She is survived by a brother Richard Meneese and three stepchildren. No memorial service has been announced

Monday, May 16, 2011

Hilton Rosemarin dies at 58
Set decorator last worked on 'Zookeeper'
By Variety Staff

Set decorator Hilton J. Rosemarin, who worked on films including "3 Men and a Baby," "Cocktail" and "The Horse Whisperer," died Sunday, May 8, of brain cancer in Toronto. He was 58.
Rosemarin worked around the world on more than 50 movies and received the Set Decorators Society of America's Outstanding Career Achievement Award. He most recently worked on the 2011 film "Zookeeper," starring Kevin James and Rosario Dawson.

Born in Montreal, Rosemarin studied technical theater at Ryerson U. in Toronto.

He was a member of IATSE Local 44 in Los Angeles and Local 873 in Toronto.

Survivors include his partner, Philippa King; two daughters; a sister; and a brother.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 13, at 2 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Visitation Centre, 375 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, East Gate Entrance (416-485-5572). It will be webcast for the benefit of his many friends living all over the world who would like to share it with us. Log-in information will be posted at www.caringbridge.org/visit/hiltonrosemarin

Donations may be made to the Gerry & Nancy Pencer Brain Tumor Centre at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.

Canadian stage and film director George Bloomfield died on May 13, 2011 in Toronto, Canada. He was 81. Blomfield graduated from McGill University and began his career at the NFB in 1957. From 1963 until 1968 he wrote, directed and produced dramas for CBC’s "Festival" series. Bloomfield helmed many Canadian TV shows including episodes of "Fraggle Rock" for five seasons. George was born in Montreal, Canada in 1930 and began his career directing shorts for the National Film Board if Canada and television for CBS. Later he moved to the United States for a brief try and at film directing which resulted in "Jenny" (1970) a romantic comedy and the anti-Vietnam film "To Kill a Clown" (1972) both starring Alan Alda. Returning to Canada, Blomfield returned to TV, directing episodes of "SCTV", "Friday the 13th: The Series", "Road to Avonlea" and his the British produced western "Hawkeye" (1994) starring Lee Horsley and Lynda Carter. George served as head director and creative producer on the comedy-drama "Due South. He directed his late nephew, actor Maury Chaykin [1949-2010], in episodes of "Nero Wolfe". Bloomfield died after a 30 year battle with heart disease, diabetes, cancer and kidney disease.

COWL, Richard "Dick" Went to his Lord on May 9, 2011 in Casselberry, FL. Richard was born in Minneapolis, MN in 1922. For the past year and a half, he lived with his family in Florida, fighting the good fight, being the good soldier. Dad was a Captain in the United States Army during World War II from the years 1942-1945. He loved his country and was so proud to be called into the Army. Dad was with the ones he loved, always surrounded with love and support. Richard was preceded in death by his gregarious daughter, Jill Cowl. Survived by his daughter, Gretchen (Art) Cowl Maldonado; son, Brian Scott (Amanda) Cowl and the light of his life, his granddaughter, Lisa Shannon (Jack) Rogers. He was also survived by his brother, Lawrence (Lavonne) Cowl. Richard had many nieces, nephews and friends. Richard spent several years in Hollywood, CA as a character actor. His face and voice have entertained us through commercials, television sitcoms, movies and radio. He was a lover of the arts, especially opera. Later, Richard settled in Hermitage, TN. Richard loved his Lord, and loved and admired those around him that loved their Lord. He was so thankful for 88 years and never let a day go by without thanking Him, over and over again. There is a certain symmetry, a sense that the good that Richard did will live on in the form of children, notes and time. Rest now, as we watch for the rainbows and feel the wind and know you are there. We will always remember you. You are home with those you love. You are home. Graveside services will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, May 15, 2011 at Temple Cemetery, 2001 - 15th Avenue. Memorials may be made to The American Lung Association.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Mary Murphy, a film and television actress best remembered for playing the wholesome small-town girl opposite Marlon Brando's rebellious motorcycle gang leader in "The Wild One," has died. She was 80.

Murphy died of heart disease May 4 at her home in Beverly Hills, said her daughter, Stephanie Specht.

In "The Wild One," the 1953 film about two rival biker gangs that menace the citizens of a tiny California town, Murphy played Kathie, the daughter of the ineffectual local cop, who captures the attention of Brando's tough guy Johnny.

"She and Brando really got along great," Specht said. "There was a scene where all the motorcycles circle around her. There was a moment where she had a bit of fear, which is what she was supposed to put out there on the screen. But she had a lot of fun. She loved the film."

A beautiful brunette, Murphy was a package wrapper at Saks Fifth Avenue on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills when she was discovered in a nearby coffee shop by Paramount Pictures talent scout Milton Lewis and signed to a contract.

"Mary was one of the most beautiful young ladies we ever had at the studio," veteran Paramount producer A.C. Lyles, who was friends with Murphy, said.

Two years of uncredited bit parts and small roles preceded Murphy's first starring role, in the 1953 movie "Main Street to Broadway."

Murphy, who had a supporting role in the 1955 Humphrey Bogart movie "The Desperate Hours," had starring roles in "Beachhead," "A Man Alone," "Hells Island," "Sitting Bull," "The Mad Magician" and other 1950s films.

She later made guest appearances on TV series such as "Dr. Kildare," "The Fugitive" and "Ironside," appeared in a few TV movies and had a role in the 1972 Steve McQueen movie "Junior Bonner."

Murphy, who had a brief 1956 marriage to actor Dale Robertson, married Alan Specht, president of the Hali-Spechts lighting store chain, in 1962. They were divorced in 1967.

Born in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 26, 1931, Murphy spent her early years in Cleveland and moved to Los Angeles with her family in the 1940s. She graduated from University High School in West Los Angeles in 1949.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Turkish actor Hüseyin Zan, famous for his roles as a villain in numerous Turkish films has died.

Zan lived in the township of Yalova Cinarcik and died May 3rd. He was best remembered for his many fight scenes in hundreds of well known films. The funeral was held at the Tassliman Mosque in Yessilcam. Workers joined the people of the district along with his wife Alice Zan and his son, Zan H. Zan was born in 1931 in Izmir, and began his film career in 1960, with the film "One of Us". He played played in several feature films and television series. Zan played the course of the period from drama to martial arts, most recently in the 2007 TV film "Kocero". He holds the record as the most beaten up actor in Turkish films.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Norma Zimmer, internationally known as the Champagne Lady on “The Lawrence Welk Show,” died Tuesday at her home in Brea, Calif. She was 87.

Zimmer, a 5-foot-2-inch blonde, was a featured soloist on the weekly “The Lawrence Welk Show” on commercial TV from 1960 to 1982. The series moved to Public Television in 1987 and continues to air on 276 PBS stations, including at 7 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays on KOED, channel 11 in Tulsa.

The performer started in The Girl Friends Quartet, which sang with stars including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Nat King Cole and more. Her group sang on Crosby’s “White Christmas” album and she appeared alongside the actor in the 1950 film “Mr. Music.” She was also the voice of White Rose in the 1951 animated Disney film “Alice in Wonderland.”

According to press information, she often toured with her friend the Rev. Billy Graham on his evangelistic tours and was a guest soloist at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

She was born July 13, 1923 in Larson, Idaho and was reared in Seattle. She wed builder/property developer Randy Zimmer in 1944 and they were married 64 years until his death in 2008. They have two sons and three grandchildren.

“The Lawrence Welk Show” holds the record as the “longest-running, musical-variety weekly series on national television.” It premiered on KTLA in Los Angeles in 1950, then moved to ABC where it aired from 1955 to 1971.

In 1971, Lawrence Welk took it into syndication until 1982 when he retired. In 1987, the show was picked up by the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority. It celebrates its 25th year on public TV starting in September.

Funeral arrangements for Zimmer are pending, according to Susie Dowdy, national publicist for “The Lawrence Welk Show.”

Actor was a regular on TV's 'Daktari' Ross Hagen, 72, a handsomely rugged actor who was a regular on the 1960s
TV series "Daktari" and starred in the low-budget biker movies "The
Hellcats" and "The Sidehackers," died of prostate cancer May 7 at home
in Brentwood, said Lee Srednick, his partner of seven years.

Launching his career in the 1960s with guest shots on TV series such as
"The Big Valley" and "The Virginian," Hagen also appeared in the Elvis
Presley movie "Speedway" and the motorcycle movie "The Mini-Skirt Mob."

In 1968, he joined the cast of "Daktari," the CBS adventure series
starring Marshall Thompson as an American veterinarian running an animal
study center in Africa. Hagen played Bart Jason, a former wild animal
hunter who had become a photographic safari guide, until the series
ended in 1969.

Hagen also was a writer, producer and director, whose credits as a
writer and director include "Time Wars" and "The Media Madman."

He was born Leland Lando Lilly on May 21, 1938, in Williams, Ariz., and
grew up on a farm in Oregon.

Hagen, who served a stint in the Army, was married twice and had two
children, Bob Lilly and Julie Lilly-Beloit, with his first wife. He and
his second wife, actress Claire Polan, were married from 1963 until her
death in 2003.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Actress dated director Ed Wood
Years after starring in her boyfriend's low-budget films 'Glen or Glenda' and 'Jail Bait,' Fuller became something of a cult icon. She also co-wrote several Elvis Presley movie songs, and founded a record company.

By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

Dolores Fuller, the onetime actress-girlfriend of cross-dressing schlock movie director Ed Wood who co-starred with Wood in his low-budget 1950s cult classic "Glen or Glenda," has died. She was 88.

Fuller, whose show business career included writing the lyrics to a dozen Elvis Presley movie songs, died Monday at her home in Las Vegas after a long illness, said her stepdaughter, Susan Chamberlin.

As the former girlfriend and two-time leading lady for the legendary filmmaker who came to be known as the world's worst movie director, Fuller became something of a cult figure herself in her later years.

"Ed always said he'd make me a star," Fuller told the Kansas City Star in 1994. "I just didn't realize it would take 42 years."

At the time, Fuller was caught up in the flurry of publicity surrounding the release of director Tim Burton's biopic "Ed Wood," starring Johnny Depp as the eccentric D-movie director and Sarah Jessica Parker as Fuller.

"Not in my wildest nightmares did I ever think I'd see the day when Eddie's movies would be popular," said Fuller, who was in Kansas City to appear at an Ed Wood Film Festival.

She was a bit movie player, a model on TV's "Queen for a Day" and Dinah Shore's stand-in on the star's musical TV show when she responded to a casting call and met Wood in late 1952.

"When I got to the casting call and first laid eyes on the young Edward, I just thought he was extremely handsome, and his personality was bubbly and fun," Fuller recalled in a 1994 interview with Tom Weaver for Fangoria magazine.

"Then when I found out he was also a director and writer as well as a producer and actor, I was very impressed. … I knew immediately that he liked me, too."

The divorced Fuller soon moved in with Wood, who cast her in "Glen or Glenda," the 1953 film in which she played the fiancee of Wood's secret cross-dresser who has a passion for angora sweaters.

Fuller said in the Fangoria interview that she "didn't know Eddie was a transvestite when we first got together — even the first year, I didn't know."

Her first clue, she said, "was when he was writing one evening and we were having a glass of wine together, and he said he'd like to borrow my white angora sweater.

"I said, 'Why do you want to borrow it?' and he said, 'Well, it helps me write, I feel so much more comfortable. I hate men's hard clothes, I like soft, cuddly things. It makes my creative juices flow!' Well, we were all alone and I saw no harm in it. … That was my first inkling that maybe he had a fetish. But I didn't realize it went any further."

Fuller said she didn't see the section of the "Glen or Glenda" script where Wood's character dresses up like a woman.

"I was really kind of shocked when I saw the part with him with a wig on, and dressed totally like a woman, 'cause I wasn't allowed on the set during those scenes," she said. When she did see the final film, she said, "I wanted to crawl under the seat!"

Fuller, who described herself as the "breadwinner" while she and Wood lived together, went on to star in his 1954 crime thriller "Jail Bait." She also had a small part in his 1955 horror film "Bride of the Monster."

Wood had written that movie for her to play the female lead, but then gave it to another actress. That, combined with his drinking, led Fuller to split up with him in 1955, according to the Fangoria article.

She moved to New York, where she studied with Stella Adler at the Actors Studio. "I decided I needed lessons after seeing Ed's films," she told the Kansas City Star.

She went on to co-write other songs for Presley movies such as "Kid Galahad," "It Happened at the World's Fair," "Fun in Acapulco" and "Spinout" — as well as co-writing "Someone to Tell it To," which was recorded by Nat King Cole, and "Losers Weepers," which was recorded by Peggy Lee.

Fuller also founded a record company, launched Johnny Rivers' recording career and served as a talent manager.

She was born March 10, 1923, in South Bend, Ind., and moved to California when she was 10. Her family was staying in a motel in El Monte when she had her first brush with Hollywood, as a background extra in Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night," which was shooting at the motel.

Fuller, who began modeling at 16, chronicled her life in her 2009 autobiography, "A Fuller Life: Hollywood, Ed Wood and Me."

She is survived by her husband, film historian Philip Chamberlin; her son, Don; three grandchildren and numerous stepchildren and stepgrandchildren.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

By Lenny Roberts
The acclaimed actress best known for her role in a 1956 low-budget classic, “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” died at the Ojai Valley Community Hospital’s Continuing Care Center May 5 at 5:30 p.m., according to her son, Mark Bautzer. She had suffered from heart disease in recent years, and was transferred from the hospital’s intensive care unit earlier in the day. Bautzer said she was not expected to survive, and “she stepped off the bus very peacefully” 33 days shy of her 80th birthday.

Wynter, a longtime Upper Ojai resident, was born Dagmar Winter in Germany in 1931. Her ashes will be buried at her other home in her beloved Ireland, according to Bautzer.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Jackie Cooper got a Best Actor Oscar nomination at age 9, won Emmys for directing episodes of "M*A*S*H" and "The White Shadow," and worked more than 60 years in show business.

But Cooper, who died today at the age of 88, will forever be known as the best darn newspaper editor Metropolis has ever known.

Cooper appeared in his first movie in 1929, and appeared in the "Our Gang" series of shorts.

In 1931, Cooper starred as a mischievous boy in "Skippy," based on a comic strip that was popular at the time. There is a famous story that the director, Norman Taurog (who was also his uncle), needed to get Cooper to cry for a scene - and when Cooper couldn't cry on cue, Taurog said he would shoot the kid's dog.

Cooper got a Best Actor Oscar nomination for "Skippy" - making him the youngest Oscar nominee ever for a leading role. (He lost to Lionel Barrymore for "A Lost Soul.")

Cooper's other child roles included the orphaned kid in "The Champ" (1931), and Jim Hawkins in a 1934 version of "Treasure Island" - both times starring alongside Wallace Beery.

Cooper served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and again on TV on the series "Hennesey" from 1959 to 1962. He worked a lot on TV, as an actor and as a director - winning Emmys for an episode of "M*A*S*H" in 1974 and the pilot episode of "The White Shadow" in 1978.

But Cooper's best known role was as Perry White, the irascible editor of the Daily Planet - and boss to Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) - in four "Superman" movies, starting with Richard Donner's 1978 classic.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Mummified body of former Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers found in her Benedict Canyon home

May 2, 2011 | 2:21pm

Yvette Vickers, an early Playboy playmate whose credits as a B-movie actress included such cult films as “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” was found dead last week at her Benedict Canyon home. Her body appears to have gone undiscovered for months, police said.

Vickers, 82, had not been seen for a long time. A neighbor discovered her body in an upstairs room of her Westwanda Street home on April 27. Its mummified state suggests she could have been dead for close to a year, police said.

The official cause of death will by determined by the Los Angeles county coroner's office, but police said they saw no sign of foul play.

Vickers had lived in the 1920s-era stone and wood home for decades, and it served as the background for some of her famous modeling pictures. But over time it had become dilapidated, exposed in some places to the elements.

Susan Savage, an actress, went to check on Vickers after noticing old letters and cobwebs in her elderly neighbor's mailbox.

"The letters seemed untouched and were starting to yellow," Savage said. "I just had a bad feeling."

After pushing open a barricaded front gate and scaling a hillside, Savage peered through a broken window with another piece of glass taped over the hole. She decided to enter the house after seeing a shock of blond hair, which turned out to be a wig.
The inside of the home was in disrepair and it was hard to move through the rooms because boxes containing what appeared to be clothes, junk mail and letters formed barriers, Savage said. Eventually, she made her way upstairs and found a room with a small space heater still on.

She was looking at a cordless phone that appeared to have been knocked off its cradle when she first saw the body on the floor, she said. Savage had known Vickers but the remains were unrecognizable, she said.

She remembered her neighbor as an elegant women in a broad straw hat, dressed in white, with flowing blond hair and "a warm smile."

"She kept to herself, had friends and seemed like a very independent spirit," Savage said. "To the end she still got cards and letter from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend."

Savage said the neighbors felt terrible.

"We've all been crying about this," she said. "Nobody should be left alone like that."

Mr. Michaels made a splash on Broadway in 1962 with his play “Tchin-Tchin,” an Americanized version of a farcical, bittersweet French comedy about a pair of betrayed spouses attempting, ineptly, to gain their revenge by having an affair of their own. It was reviewed enthusiastically — “Like the fool in motley, it capers wildly and mourns delicately,” Howard Taubman wrote in The New York Times — and ran 222 performances. It was nominated for a Tony for best play in the spring of 1963, though it lost to Edward Albee's “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

“Tchin-Tchin” starred Margaret Leighton and Anthony Quinn, the first of many name-brand stars who were attracted to Mr. Michaels’s work. In 1964, Alec Guinnes won his only Tony for his performance in the title role in “Dylan,” Mr. Michaels’s biographical portrayal of the poet Dylan Thomas. (The play itself was also nominated; the winner that year was “Luther” by John Osborne.)

And in 1965, Robert Preston played the title role in the musical “Ben Franklin in Paris,” for which Mr. Michaels wrote the book (and the lyrics to Mark Sandrich Jr.’s music), earning his third Tony nomination and losing to the author of another legendary production, Joseph Stein, for “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Mr. Michaels’s successes led to some unsuccessful partnerships. He and the composer Richard Rodgers collaborated on a musical, “The Beautiful Woman,” about the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, that was reportedly to star Diahann Carroll, but the project was never completed. Mr. Michaels also worked with the composer Mitch Leigh (“Man of La Mancha”) on a musical called “Halloween”; it never made it to Broadway despite a road-tryout cast that included Barbara Cook and Jose Ferrer.
Two other shows he wrote — “Goodtime Charley,” a 1975 musical about Joan of Arc starring Joel Grey and Ann Reinking, and “Tricks of the Trade” (1980), a cold war spy story set in a New York psychiatrist’s office, starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere — appeared on Broadway but were short-lived.

Sidney Ramon Michaels was born in New York City on Aug. 17, 1927. His parents divorced when he was young, and he grew up in Brookline, Mass., in the home of his father, Max Michaels, who was a producer of burlesque shows and a theater manager in Boston. After high school, he served in the Coast Guard and then studied drama at Tufts University, graduating in 1950.

In addition to his plays and musicals, Mr. Michaels wrote for television and the movies; his credits include “The Night They Raided Minsky’s,” the bawdy 1968 film comedy that purports to tell the story of the birth of striptease.

Mr. Michaels lived in Westport. He is survived by his wife, Louisette, whom he married in 1956; a sister, Meryle Ober, of Newton, Mass.; a son, Cotter, of Fairfield, Conn., who is married to Ms. Jennings; a daughter, Candia Steen, of New York City; and six grandchildren.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.